ones here today and the crowds are growing and the excitement is building because people are understanding what we are on the verge of. we are 10 days away from ushering in a new era of american politics and american history. [applause] why are 10 days away. 10 more days . (chanting) we are 10 days away. from electing machine to the white house that not just believes in the american free enterprise system, he understands it because he has lived it. we are 10 days away from electing someone to the white house who understands that the world is a safer and better place, when america is the strongest country in the world. [applause]

and so as connie mack said a moment ago. you need to go out and vote and make sure five other people go out and vote. you can convince the people to vote. you know who they are. they want to vote. go get them there and if you know people in other states and places like ohio, colorado, virginia -- you need to call them on the phone and great thing about being from florida, everybody knows somebody from somewhere else. i don't want to wake up wednesday morning to the bad news that we almost did it i want to wake up wednesday morning that the republican majority took over the senate and republican majority -- [applause] that a republican majority remains in the house. [applause]

and that mitt romney is the president-elect for the united states. [applause] and so, -- i want, i am going to show you a short video of what is happening in america so that you know you are not in this alone. we are 10 days away from the most important election that we have ever seen and we are going to win. god bless you and: >> they are breaking away and we'll get the latest on the path of hurricane sandy. maria molena has an update on the powerful storms path and where it is heading. and it is it and so it is a

large storm. and it is in the northeast and for today we are feeling the impact of the tropical storm impact in portions of the carolina coastline and south carolina and southeastern portions of the state of virginia and gusts up to 50 miles per hour possible and a lot of heavy rain. the storm will continue to move northward and the rain will increase anywhere from 25 to 50 miles per hour and beach erosion will be a big concern along with coastal flood the combination of the on shore flow pushing water inland and heavy rain from the storm system. by monday, that is when sandy is forecast to make landfall it could be a category 1 hurricane. and regardless of that, we'll feel the impact as far as rain and coastal flood very strong winds. on the back end of the system, cold air will meet up with the

moist and you are we'll see wet snow in western parts of virginia and southwestern parts of the state of pennsylvania, locally up to two feet or more of snow will be possible especially on the higher elevations, that is very significant and rain significant as well. we could pick up to 11 inches much rainfall and a lot of the rainfall. the southeast, and again having snow, locally more than two feet possible. >> seems unbelievable. a couple minutes before we hear from mr. romney. i want to ask you quickly.

they're calls this a storm that could be one of historic proportions, and something that is array event. >> basically because it's just so large. the span is 1,000 miles from the northern end to the southern end. so we're going to be feeling impact widespread. talk about snow also possible with the storm system. and tropical impact, and something we have been noting is that the pressure has been dropping. what that means is that sandy is intense -- intensifying, and we expect it to transition. >> we want to take you out to pensacola, florida, where governor mitt romney is about to walk out and greet the thousands of supporters who gathered to hear him speak. they're wrapping up a video that was introduced by senator rubio

there, talking about the governor's accomplishments and his hopes for his -- for presidency under mitt romney, and as we have been telling you, it is early voting today in florida. the first day of early voting. just ten days out until election day, which is happening, and this is the first of three campaign events that the governor will be holding today. so, let's hear now from governor mitt romney. block [applause] [applause]

♪ [applause] >> thank you.

pensacola. [chanting] romney romney romney romney romney romney romney romney, romney, romney, romney, romney. >> you guys -- [cheers and applause] >> well, we are going to win this. you know that. we're going to win. yeah. thank you to senator marco rubio for introducing me today, and thank you to the next united states senator from florida, connie mack. we got to get him in that senate. i want to thank also congressman miller for being here, and i have to tell you how much fun it is to be back in pensacola and that's a welcome like none

other. thank you so very much. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> now, last time i was in pensacola, i was here with senator john mccain. and as i drove in today it was good to see the city seems to be doing very, very well. appreciate, mayor, your introduction today, and i know john mccain was worried. he was afraid when he left flight school that the liquid hospitality business would totally collapse, but apparently -- they used to do pretty well. you know, all across america, people are paying a great deal of attention to this race. they recognize this is a critical time for the country. we face big challenges. we have big opportunities. and i know this is a big election. so the crowds are large, and people are paying very close attention. four years ago, then candidate barack obama, spoke about big

things. but now he is reduced to talking about small things. he is shrinking from the magnitude of the times. and so he is speaking about characters on sesame street, and silly word games, and attacks on me. look, attacking me is not an agenda for the future and that's why we're replacing him. [cheering] >> you know, his presidency also shrunk from the promises he made as a candidate. he promised his would be a post-partisan presidency but he been divisive and demon niced almost any group that opposed him. he promised he would cut the deficit in half. instead he doubled it. i know he says he wants to do something to help the budget. but i learned in order to balance a budget, it starts -- it helps to have actually had a

budget. to start with a budget. and -- [cheering] >> you can't balance a budget unless you start with one, and he actually put out a proposal this last year for the house and the senate to look at. there are 535 members of the house and senate combined. do you know how many people voted for his budget? zero. no one voted for his budget. paul ryan and i are going to get america on track to have a balanced budget. he took on -- during his campaign, another big promise. he said he would save medicare. he would pre serve and it protect it and save it from pending insolvency. in stead he cut medicare by $716 billion. he said he was going to have unemployment today down to 5.4%.

we're nine million jobs short of that and he has no plan to get this economy going again to put americans to work. you notice there's some numbers he doesn't speak about. he doesn't use the number, 47. that happens to be how many million people are on food stamps today. 15 million more than than when he took office. he doesn't use the number 23 million. that's the number of people struggling to find a good job in this country. the president doesn't have a plan. he is out of ideas. he is out of excuses, and this november florida is going to make sure we put him out of office. [cheering] >> now in 2010, then-president obama came to pensacola. you probably weren't there, but some folks were. and he took pride in saying, and i quote, he halted reductions in

the navy. that's what he said. but today, today he again has shrunk to a smaller version of the navy, and his view of the navy's role. you may recall in our most recent debate i made the point our navy is now smaller than at any time in, well, almost 100 years, and the president's response was, well, we don't use bayonets and horses anymore. and in fact we do use bayonets, and -- [applause] >> and a modern navy is one of the critical elements that allows to us protect sea lanes and keep the world more free and props produce. i believe in a modern navy. my plan is to increase the number of ships we're building to maintain our strong commitment to our military. [applause] >> his vision is not greatness in america's navy or military.

his vision is to cut our military spending bay trillion dollars. and by the way, a trillion dollars in cuts would cost about 41,000 jobs here in florida. and think of all the businesses that depend upon those jobs. it's extraordinary but the president's alleged keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. not just for the military but for medicare, for jobs. this is not a president who has been able to stand up to the challenge of the times. this is an election about big things. about big choices. and that's why in november we're going to elect a person and a team and a people who are going to come together to bring real change and big change to america. [applause] [applause] [cheers and applause]

>> you know, the supporters of the president have this chant. they do "four more years" i like what i heard. i like, "ten more days" a lot better. [chanting] ten more days, ten more days, ten more days, ten more days, ten more days, ten more days. ten more days. ten more days. ten more days. >> you know, it's ten more days because it matters to you. this election matters to the world. it matters to the country, but matters to your family. and i hope you understand that this is an election about very big things, like the big things that go on in your life. if you're a senior or you have a senior living at home with you, if that senior develops a medical condition that requires a specialist, if the president's

re-elected, and you call the receptionist of the medical specialist and ask for an appointment, you're likely to hear the receptionist say, i'm sorry, we're not taking anymore medicare patients because of obamacare, which the president has used to slash medicare by $716 billion, some 50% of america's doctors decided they won't take new medicare patients. if i'm president we're going repeal obamacare and honor our promises made to seniors. [chanting] ten more days. ten more days. >> you know, if you're in your 40s or your 50s, and these are the years when you're expected to be making a very prosperous living for yourself, putting away a little for your retirement, helping perhaps a child in college, these have not been -- these last four years the kind of years you expected. i was on the phone with a

gentleman from wisconsin the other day, and -- got some wisconsinize wisconsinites here. he said this job used to pay $25 an hour plus benefits. the only job he can get is a job that pays $8 without benefits. people in america are having a hard time, even those that have jobs. i mentioned the 23 million out of work or struggling to find a good job. this is a guy who has a job. he doesn't show up in the unemployment statistics. but his life is not what he expected it to be and that's happening automatic over the country. takehome bay is down and prices are up. it's been a hard time for the middle class. and against that the president has no plan that gets people working again. paul ryan and i have a five-point plan that will put 1 million americans back to work and get rising takehome pay again. [applause]

>> now i know we may have some college students in the room here today -- [cheers and applause] i've got in good news for you. the good news is, if -- when i get elected, we're -- [cheers and applause] >> -- we are going to make sure there are good jobs waiting for you when you come out of college. and there's something else which i want you to know about. you're going to come out of school with whatever student that you have put together, maybe 10,000 or 20,000 or more, and it's going to take a long time to pay the interest on that and to pay back the principal and it's going to affect your life. i want you to also know that over the past several years the president has been adding to debt that you have to pay for that you don't know about. it's about $50,000 per man, woman and child in america.

and i'm going to be long gone before it's paid back. you college kids will be paying the interest on that debt all your life and that's going to make it harder and harder for you to achieve the american dream. the president's plan is to add a trillion dollars more to the national debt. my plan is to say we're not going to keep spending what we have not earned and get america back on track to a balanced budget. [cheers and applause] >> now, paul ryan and i have a plan to get these things done. and as five major parts in terms of getting the economy going again, and you heard me talk about them before. these five things will create $12 million, get the take home pay comele up. number one wore going too take fuel advantage of our rear sources, coal, renewables, gas.

that's number one. number two, we're going to open up more trade with other nations where we can compete effectively in latin america, the opportunities are extraordinary. i want more trade. but when people cheat on trade we're going to hold them accountable and stop them. >> we're going to make sure that training programs we have here in this country work for workers that need those programs and we're going to fix our schools finally by doing something that's long overdue and that is by putting our kids and their parents and the teachers first and the teachers union has to good behind. [applause] >> number four, number four, i've already mentioned the budget. number five is this. i want to see us really champion small business. i want small business to grow and thrive and to be able to add more people. now, the president has a plan for small business.

it's to raise their taxes. i won't raise taxes on small business and i'll cut taxes on middle income americans. [applause] >> the president plans to smother small business with more regulation. you see, regulations are able to be dealt with by large corporations that have dozens of lawyers and they can implement all these big regulatory changes, but small business gets crushed by the regulations. so we're going to go through and strip out those that have been put in during the obama years and put a stop on this regulatory creep that's killing jobs. [applause] >> and of course if you really want to help small business, you got to take away the big cloud scaring away job creators and you have to get rid of obama karr and we'll repeal it. now, those are the five things we'll do to get this economy

going. but in order for those things to happen, we've got to do something that doesn't happen very often in washington. and that is paul ryan and i are going to have to do what we have done before, which is reach across the aisle. build bridges to people in the other party. recognize -- [applause] >> this is not a time in america for us to pull back and to divide and to demonize. it's a time in america for us to come together, to look for common ground in places where we have agreement. paul ryan has done that. this medicare plan was co-our authored by a senator from oregon. a democrat. they came together. i was elected in a state with a few democrats, as you know. my legislature was 85% democrats, and we faced a multibillion door budget shortfall. we could have just fought but instead we came together and found places to work together.

we cut spending. when i say cut spending, i don't just mean reduce the rate of growth. we actually cut spending, brought it down, and we -- [applause] >> and we cut taxes 19 times. and we also made sure that our state was as business friendly as we could make it, and the result was we moved up 20 places in terms of the state's growth rate, relative to other states. we also were able to balance our budget all four years. in fact the $3 billion shortfall of the first year, we turned into a balanced budget and by the last year we put in place a $2 billion rainy day fund. republicans and democrats can work together. it demands leadership, and paul ryan and i will bring it. [applause]

>> the president says that he can't change washington from the inside. he can only do it from the outside. we're going to give him that chance, soon. all right? [chanting] ten more days. ten more days. ten more days. >> i can tell you, i'm confident, i'm confident in our future. i'm so optimistic about america, i know it's been tough these last four years. but we're going to come roaring back with an economy that puts our kids to work when they come out of school; that gives people jobs that need those jobs. , that assures the seniors they can rely on the retirement and that's going to happen because of the heart of the american people. i've had the chance to see americans in all walks of life, and as i've done so i've come away more confident in our future and more proud of this great land. i remember when i was a boy scout leader some years ago, and any boy scouters here? yeah, right there.

and i was at a court of honor, a court of honor is where eagle scout awards are given and where other awards are given to scouts. and there was a formica table at the front of the room and i was seated at the far end of the table next to the flag, and the person who was speaking at the podium was a scout master from monument, colorado. someone from colorado over there, yeah. you got everything here in pensacola, don't you. [applause] >> and he said that his scout troop wanted to have a very special flag, and so they bought one, gold tasles on the outside, had it flown above the capitol building. when it came home they didn'ted they wanted today go up in the space shuttle. so they contacted nasa and said would you take our flag on the space shut until and they agree. he said you can't imagine our proud our boys were to be watching from their school rooms

on a tv set there and watch the challenger shuttle launch until they saw it explode on the tv screen. and he said, he then called nasa a couple of weeks later and said have you found any remnant of our flag? and they said no, we're sorry, we haven't. he called every week, month after month, and still nothing. and so finally some months late her was reading an article before the debris from the challenger disaster and there was a mention of a flag, and so he called nasa again, and they said in fact we have a presentation to make to your boys. and so nasa came and the boys were there, and they presented the boys with this plastic container, and he said we opened the container, and there was our flag in perfect condition. [applause] >> and then he said, that's it on the flag pole next to

mr. romney at the end of the table. i reached over and grabbed the flag and sort of pulled it out, and it was as if electricity was run through my arm. i thought to myself, of the sacrifice of those men and women in our space program, who put themselves in harm's way for us, for learning, for pioneering. it's the american spirit. to live for something bigger than ourself. to give of ourselves the things that are large. [applause] >> this is a city of heroes. [applause] >> it's said you don't have to be larger than life to be a hero. you just have to be larger than yourself. i think of john mccain, a hero that has roots near this city.

he said, no -- he tried to deflect the heroism that was associated with his name. he said, no, i have the honor of serving in the company of heroes. and he is right. i think of the young men and women coming out of college and high school who put aside their career and decide to enlist in our armed forces. i appreciate those who serve our country. [applause] >> i love -- i love our national anthem. [applause] >> i love the words we get to sing in our national anthem, and america the beautiful, the verse, obeautiful for heroes prove in liberating stride, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life. will ore veterans please raise your hands and members of the armed forces and be recognized. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you. thank you. americans in all walks of life live for things bigger than themselves. those in our military live for our country and for freedom. i think of my sister in a very different way. my sister lynn has eight children. the first seven are all married and have children of their own, and the eighth child was born down's syndrome. now about 43, lynn is in her 70s, and her husband passed away a few years ago. she devotes her life to her 43-year-old son to make sure he has a full and occupied life. [applause] >> she is a hero to me. i think of single moms today. that are scrimping and saving to

make their kids have a good meal. moms and dads working two jobs so they can buy clothes from them kids so the kids won't stand out. i think of couples this christmas who decide not to exchange gift because they want to have enough for their kids to have a great christmas. this who is we are as a people. this is one of the things that makes america such an exceptional and unique nation. we live for things beyond ourself. [applause] >> and this is one of those times when americans are going to have to look beyond themselves, look beyond themselves for their senior parents, look beyond themselves for their kids, the coming generation. look into the future and see the deficit being amassed and say, what is right for america? this is a time of big choices.

of big consequence. it's a big election. the president keeps talking about smaller and smaller things. we keep talking about larger and larger things that's why this mom is going across the country, it's going to sweep the nation and we're going to win in november. [cheers and applause] >> there's a fictional football team, you may have seen, in a show called friday night lights sometime ago, and on that show this team that was kind of an underdog, they would run out of the locker room and go on at the field, they'd touch a sign with this slogan. with clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. i see the american people today as having very clear eyes about what our future might look like. a bright and prosperous future with the right leadership. i know our people have full hearts and in november, we can't lose, america. thank you so very much. i need your help for me to win

this and take back america. this country is the hope of the earth. thank you so very much. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ >> a very enthusiastic mitt romney speaking to a very large audience in pensacola, florida, today. the first of three campaign stops, and as we listen to mr. romney, he was very emotional has he made some personal reflexes and offer -- reflections and offered

anecdotes about the best things about america. personal heroes, people like single moms who are fighting every day to make ends meet, and to feed their families. talked about heroes. parents who forego giving christmas presents so their children can have extra presents. a very interesting speech indeed, and he also talked about we live for things beyond ourselves. it's a theme that he echoed throughout the speech. let's bring in john roberts who is standing by in pensacola. job, i thought it was very interesting he was making mention of personal anecdotes and he underscored the fact he can work in a bipartisan fashion, and that is one thing he and paul ryan are going to do from day one, is to reach out to the other side, should they win. >> you know, that's one of the

big things he has been talking about, this idea of increased bipartisanship, and it's now in his stump speech all the time. talking about the idea that with bipartisan cooperation he would be able to get done the things the country needs to get done. it's all part of the closing argument that the governor is engaging in where he has left behind a lot of these. so he is hard on the president for his failures in the past. it's become about more than that and this is what'mans have been talking about for so long. mitt romney needed to more than just a one note johnny in terms about complaining about the obama record on the economy. he needed to throw some optimism in there and talk about his own plan so voters can say, there is a clear difference. this is the person i want to vote for. uma? >> thank you so much for your reflections. we're going to take you now to our special on benghazi. jack, you're a little boring.

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with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. returning to our story. it's september 11, 201. the attack on the u.s. kansas lat in benghazi is underway. back in washington, what does the president know and when does he know it? what does he say? and when does he say it? questions that turn this terror attack into a political firestorm. here's chief white house correspond ed henry. >> september 11, and the attack

in benghazi was playing out, e-mails cascade into the mail boxes of high-ranking officials in the intelligence community, the pentagon, and the white house. 4:00 5:00 p.m. eastern time. the diplomatic mission is under attack. 49 minutes later, 4:54 p.m. firing at the u.s. diplomatic mission in benghazi has stopped and the compound has been cleared. at 5:00 p.m., the president, vice-president and defense secretary, leon panetta, meet in the oval office. >> that's an hour after the attacks began. at that time they would have had a drone and a video feed from a drone being fed back to washington. >> fox news national security correspondent, jennifer griffith. >> the problem is don't forget that video from a drone is taken from an incredible distance. you don't have clarity as to who is who on the ground. you see figures moving. it's hard to tell friendly from faux. >> 6:00 7'm. another e-mail states that a

terror group with ties to al qaeda claimed responsibility on facebook and twitter. administration officials later say a posting on social media and is not in and of itself evidence. 11:5 p.m. another chilling e-mail. subject line, benghazi shelter location also under attack. the next morning, september 12, president obama addresses the nation from the rose garden and what he says or doesn't say will become a hotly debated issue over the next days and weeks. >> since our founding, the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. >> with those words the president seems to be saying ambassador christy veins and three other americans were killed in a spontaneous riot over the antibiotic muhammad internet video and not a planned terror attack.

then he does use the term terror in a more general sense after he calls the al qaeda attack. >> no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. >> a hugely important distinction to some obama critics, like mark stein. >> there are always reasons to riot in the muslim world. >> stein believes the president was trying to dodge responsibility for the attack by chalking it up 0 the out of proportion joust rage we often hear about in the muslim world. >> i happen to be in the oval office once and president bush gave a very droll line. he said there's always something. if it's not the crusades, it's the cartoon, in other words, the riot over the danish cartoon or the swell on a burger king tub that looks like allah written in arabic. always a reason to riot. >> you're aware we have an election going on.

>> that afternoon, the president leaves for a campaign trip to las vegas. >> president of the united states did not postpone a campaign event even though we had been hit. >> i said at the time i thought that was the biggest political strategic mistake of the obama campaign. >> dana per recent na was the white house press secretary for the george w. bush administration. she is now a fox news host. >> you can imagine if he said, as commander-in-chief, it is important for me to stay back here at the white house. just imagine everybody would have thought, wow, how responsible. >> once the president made a statement, i'm not sure what he should have done. >> democrat, eleanor holmes thornton represents the district of columbia. >> obvious sit in mourning for several days and not go about our daily business. >> septembers', secretary of state hillary clinton suggests the attack was a spontaneous attack about the antiis lamb video. >> there is no justification, none at all, for responding to

this video with violence. >> white house press secretary jake carney explicitly blames the video the next day. >> these proprosts -- proe protests were in reaction to a video. we have no information to suggest it was preplanned attack. >> later that day, at the transfer of a ceremony at joint base andrews, clinton talks again about the video. >> we have seen rage and violence directed at american embassies over an awful, internet video that we had nothing to do with. >> the father of one of those killed, later tells fox news, clinton told him personally that they were going to arrest and prosecute the producer of the video. the next day, september 15th. california authorities haul nick call la, the man responsible for the video, and march him in from of tv cap razz, then the u.s.

ambassador goes on five sunday talk shows, repeating the same story each time. >> this was not a plea preplanned, premeditated attack. what happened initially it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in cairo, as a consequence of the video. >> they panicked. they panicked. >> former white house chief of staff john sununu is now a senior advisor to republican mitt romney's campaign. >> this is purely a political reaction in a white house that had prepared itself to establish a narrative of a president getting rid of the threat of terrorism, using the death of bin laden to focus on that, and waking up one morning and finding out that terrorism on 9/11 of this year was back full fledged and even killing a u.s. ambassador. >> former obama state spokesman. >> i don't see a political agenda here.

i see the fog of war. the fact that we still do not know -- it's not about politics. it's about the difficult task of reconstructing what happened, and having full access to the site and to all the people that played a role in thisment. >> september 18th. >> did the administration have any sort of heads up that violence was increasing specifically in libya before the attacks? >> i'm not aware of any, ed. this is a matter under investigation in terms of what precipitated the eye tack. >> that night, on the late show with david letterman, president obama gives perhaps his most elaborate explanation of what he says happened in benghazi. what it a spontaneous riot or planned attack? a combination of the two, he suggests. >> you had a video that was released by somebody who lives here, sort of a shadowy character. this caused great offense in much of the muslim world.

but what also happened was extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassies, including the consulate in libya. >> but on september 25th, at the united nations the president mentions the video six times. >> there's no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. >> september 27th, the producer of the video is ordered detained without bail by a federal judge for allegedly violating the terms of his probation. he remains in custody to this day. >> the attack on our consulate can't be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting islam. >> by october, the opponent is hitting president obama hard, saying he is ducking responsibility for the attacks. >> we're watching the unraveling of the obama foreign policy. >> october 16th. at the second presidential debate, romney and obama face

off and highlight the now official charges and countercharges over whether president obama took the benghazi attacks and by implication the islamic terror threat in general seriously enough. >> as soon as we found out that the benghazi consulate was being overrun, was on the phone with my national security team. >> the president the day after that happened, flies to las vegas for a political fundraiser. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden. and i told the american people that this was an act of terror. and the suggestion that anybody in my team would play politics or mislead when we lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. >> took the president 14 days before the called the attack in ben gas si an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> six days later. >> the first question and it concerns libya. >> october 22nd. the final presidential debate. >> governor romney, you said this was an example of an

american policy in the mideast that is unraveling. >> if anyone was hoping to see another donny brook over benghazi they would be disappointed. >> we see in libya an attack apparently by -- i think we know now by terror wrist -- >> whatever the rope both candidates seem ready to move on. >> my first job as commander the in chief, bob, is to keep the american people safe and that's what we have done for four years. >> the story is not going away. >> could the terrorist attack in benghazi heave been prevented? could it have been stopped? special report investigates after the break. ♪ my life begins today ♪ ♪ fly by ght away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i just can't pretend oww! ♪

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>> on september 12, 2012, four

americans died in benghazi. this week brought a new set of questions. among them, should the military have responded more quickly and forcefully? or was that impossible under the circumstances? >> october 24th, the state department. >> we are intent on figuring out who did this and bringing the perpetrators to justice but i'm not going to get into the details. >> details are trickling out. a suspect jailed in tunisia. another killed by egyptian police. another identified but still free in benghazi. meantime, a number of former national security officials, from republican administrations to be sure, start asking questions about the response to the attack. >> you don't just passively allow americans to remain under attack for eight hours of time, when you have forces i within range and do nothing. >> one is bud mcfar lean, national security adviser to

president reagan. >> the secretary of defense was in the white house at 5:00 within an hour of when the attack started. he could have told him, yes, we have special operations people and f-18 aircraft that could be deployed right away to have known what he had available to have known that americans were under fire, and to have done nothing, is dereliction of duty i have never seen in a president of any party. outrageous. >> that's strong stuff. >> well, it is strong. i wouldn't say that if there was any ambiguity about the conditions on the ground. but there wasn't. americans were being killed. you must respond. that is your dutiy. you're the commander-in-chief. >> there's a lot of monday morning quarterbacking going on here. >> october 25th. defense secretary leon panetta responds to the growing chorus of criticism. >> the basic principle is you

don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what is going on, without having some real-time information about what is taking place. >> panetta declined our request for interview, so did national security advisor tom donnelly. >> would you be willing to answer questions about benghazi? >> good morning, guys. >> in fact, a special reports investigates interview request for any white house official went unanswered. >> we're not harry potter, and all of a sudden we can appear in libya. >> so we turned to former congressman joseph, pennsylvania democrat and a retired three-star admiral. >> the f-16s and the navy destroyers were in the neighborhood. >> the logistics would be to have people moved over there. you have a whole team of things to work. i have read these accounts and i think people who were there would have done anything to get there.

but it does take some planning. >> on october 26th. the father of former navy seal tyrone woods, who was killed in action at the annex in benghazi, went on fox news america live to respond to reports that thecry -- cia operators requested help and were denied. >> those people who made the decision and who knew about the decision and lied about it, are murders of my son. >> then president obama does an interview with a local denver reporter. >> were they denied requests for help during the attack? >> well, we are finding out exactly what happened. i guarantee you that everybody in the state department, our military, cia, you name it, had number one priority making sure that people were safe. these are our folks. >> i find it astounding. i find it a lack of leadership. >> republican senator john mccain says the military should have been prepared to respond long ago.

>> why in the world, after two previous attacks on the embassy, with deteriorating security, even the alarms being sounded by the ambassador on september 11th. why wouldn't we have our forces on an alert status so they could respond? >> you think the white house is covering something up. >> they're either grossly incompetent or covering up and i don't know which is worse. >> in the 2008 democratic primary, candidate hillary clinton famously ran her 3:00 a.m. ad. its message was simple. late at night when the rest of us are asleep, it's the president who gets the call when a crisis erupts in the world, and it's the president who must decide what to do. it's impossible to know what would have happened in libya if we'd done things differently. it seems painfully clear, though, that not enough was done before, during, or after the attack in benghazi, to make us truly feel safe in this dangerous world.

that's our program. i'm brett bayer. tanks for watching.